The Hollow
by chaiteadreams
Summary: Memphis MayFire "The Hollow" music prompt. TVD Style.
1. The Sinner

**A/N: Woohoo another story! **

**Hi guys. I was inspired by Memphis May Fire and their album The Hollow for this story. There will be either 9 or 10 chapter accordingly and it is one whole story but some chapter will not be related to the previous one and vice versa, the only thing that will be a consistent in this story is Bonnie and her malady . **

**I'll be posting it in order of the album so the next one will be The Unfaithful and in some ways it will be connected this this one and in some ways no, nuh uh. Urggh, it irks me that I can't give more in this AN. Just read and review okay guys. Love you all**

**\- Nica **

**The Hollow **

**Part 1 – The Sinner**

The magic had pooled over Bonnie's skin, giving her a strange buzz that she could only assume being high felt like. She frowned, she was searching for something, an emotion dancing just out of her reach, taunting her with incomprehension... the only thing she felt was a giddy nervousness over the fact that anyone could burst through the door of the supply closet and bust her for getting high off of dark magic.

Bonnie sat crossed-legged on the floor creating a mental image of Mr. Gardener's round face getting red with anger and him brandishing his plump finger like a weapon to tell her off. "Bonnie Bennett!" She could almost hear him yell "You have detention for a month for using dark magic in the supply closet!" A giggle bubbled up and escaped between Bonnie's lips. She pressed a hand over her mouth to stifle any more of her giggles. The high was wearing off leaving her with a feeling of dread and a strange hollowness that had her searching... for something, in the first place.

Bonnie shook her head to clear the mental image still floating around; an unnecessary movement because the thoughts just blurred together like dark tendrils, swirling and slithering. The strands moved against each other in an awkward limbo until it dissolved into ghostly, jumbled whispers. The whispers are like static; white noise on her brain, senseless and incomprehensible. She's screaming inside, her voice shrill and pained even to herself. She puts her hands over her ears pressing it closed as if it could contain her thoughts and emotions. Bonnie lets herself fall back onto the worn marble floor and she withes, the emotional pain actually taking on a physical form. The hot tears almost burn her skin and not for the first time she wishes she can turn it off. She didn't want to feel this, she didn't want to feel anything.

##

The manifestation of the dark magic that she had been dabbling in had made an appearance through her wardrobe, Damon had noticed. Gone were the girly floral shirts and blue skinny jeans.

She wore all black like himself, her lips were now always coated in fire engine red lipstick and a pair of Ray Ban shades stuck into her hair or poised on her face when she felt the need. Today she was wearing a sheer long sleeved black mini dress, black leather jacket and mid-calf black combat boots. Her shades were perched on her artfully messy chocolate locks that she had piled high onto her head in a bun. There was something that stopped Damon from thinking her pretty as he usually did.

It was the fact that her normally vibrant green eyes that sparkled with mischief and humour were flat and lifeless as if her soul had been sucked out of her body. And her smell; she always smelt slightly like cinnamon after doing a spell but now the smell was stronger, harsher on his nose but just as alluring. He wanted to shake her but he doubted she'd let him get within 100 feet.

He had helped kill her grandmother. He watches as Stefan stands at the door more concerned with hearing that he has received her forgiveness than noticing the flat, empty look her eyes have taken on

** Digging a hole that I can't get out of **

**Deeper and deeper below the surface **

**To find that there's nothing there**

The apologizes that come from Stefan are stifling. The way his voice fills with pity and he cocks his head to the side thinking that he knows her and how she feels. She wants to lash out at him, to get him to feel how much it hurts but she doesn't. She's getting better at pulling away from herself, becoming something she prides herself in and also something she thinks needs fixing.

So she just watches him for a long while before closing the door in her face.

Damon watches her carefully, notices when she shuts everything down and pushes everyone away. He lets her, knowing that for her to climb back out of the pit she has dug herself, that she must hit rock bottom. He isn't sure why he's watching her. Probably because her pain is intoxicating, more potent than his and he wants to concentrate on anything else besides the fact that Katherine is a manipulative bitch with a knack for ruining lives.

So he watches, enjoying the power he feels when he settles into her dreams knowing fully well that he has the power to change them at will. She dreams of digging holes with her bare hands, her nails breaking and bleeding as she screams, digging deeper yet even though she knows she will not be able to get out soon.

After a while she starts recognizing the hole as her grave and she stops screaming as her body compels her to dig deeper, she just moves robotically, her limbs co-ordinated and stiff.

**Where do I go from here? **

**Give me something that I can feel! **

**Back and forth here we go again **

**What will it take to keep it together? **

The night that he realizes that he's wrong about letting her hit rock bottom is eerily quiet and the moon is full casting light on the all the dark surfaces. She's silent as she digs, water brimming her eyes but not falling. Dirt smears her face and it's all over her but she doesn't seem to care. All she can do is dig. He thinks about twisting her dreams around her, pulling the nightmare from out under her but he resists.

A longing to see her raw, intoxicating pain holds him back. She's further than she's ever been before and the sky in her dreams cracks open pouring the elixir of the heavens down onto her. The sky around Damon mirrors her dreams. And then she's drowning, the muddy water being forced into her lungs and the bloody stubs she called fingers seeking purchase in the mud of the walls. Bonnie's panic gets too much and it's overwhelming them both, he reaches, with much difficulty into the dream.

"Bonnie," His voice startles her and the dream flashes to images of Damon with red eyes and black veins wriggling around them attacking her to a dejected looking Damon standing behind a invisible force field and then finally to her lifeless Grams before it returns to the hole and cements itself in it. Her pure hatred of him pushes him out, unable to intervene and Damon is reeling. It feels as if a 10 tonne metal door has slammed into him before slamming shut in front of him.

His head in pounding and he watches as Bonnie grits her teeth and spits the dirty water out of her mouth and sinks below the murky surface. He thinks that's she going to die in this dream, the vivid nature able to jar her out of her near comatose state but minutes pass by until a pale brown hand reaches beneath the surface and plucks her easily out of the water as if she weighed nothing

** Keep me close, keep me close **

**Keep my head above water **

**I need to hear your voice **

**I can't do this on my own **

He watches as Sheila Bennett cradles her granddaughter to her chest and hovers her face over Bonnie's letting her breath wash over her face until she sputters and coughs the water from her lungs. Bonnie's green eyes blink up at her until she gasps and they're gripping each other in bone crushing hugs and Bonnie's crying and screaming. Every ounce of pain she felt at the funeral weeks before is flooding back into her and Damon inexplicitly regrets his choice to revel in her misfortune.

He never thought that such a small girl could hold so much pain. He watches as Sheila leans in to whisper in Bonnie's ear so lowly that even his superior hearing cannot hear them over the roar of the wind and rain. Then the dream dissolves around her and he watches her unmoving form on her bed, her head twisted away from him but her breathing erratic.

Damon feels both the need to comfort her and run far away from her but he does neither just sits on his branch not daring to move as if that will break the spell and the pain that he was able to feel from her will shatter him.

##

Driving and blaring music at the highest possible levels without damaging her hearing was pretty distracting and she needed a distraction because she wanted to forget her dreams, the sympathetic looks at her Gram's funeral, all the pats on her back and the not so gentle speculation about what kind of father Rudy Hopkins was for missing his mother-in-law's funeral and leaving his daughter alone.

But most of all, she had wanted to forget her best friend's face; the pretty whiskey coloured eyes, her proud nose, her prominent cheekbones. The face the girl wore that originally belonged to a very old and very manipulative vamp bitch; the one whose little lapdog and Elena's nerve grating saviour complex (even though the girl knew full well she had no power to save anyone much less herself) had costed her her Grams.

"It's okay to be angry," Caroline had said rubbing slow circles on the bare skin of her lower back where her t-shirt had ridden up.

They were huddled up on her coach after the funeral, a foggy feeling still clouding her brain and the whole thing feeling like a dream, a horrible horrible dream that she would wake up from. "I know you love Elena but you just always seem to get hurt when she's involved." She scoffed in agreement? or contemplation?

Bonnie wanted to take Caroline's out and give into her anger but from Caroline's tone and her unfocused glare directed at the blank flat screen in from of them; Care was angry enough for the both of them.

So her anger forgotten but her resentment still very present, she mouthed the words to the song and tapped her fingers on the steering wheel. Bonnie had never known her mother and held no curiosity to do so because the woman who had raised her was all she understood of that word and more and Bonnie needed her back.

She found her answer, with some difficulty in the depths of New Orleans amidst the shrouds of secrecy and fear of the vampire called Marcel. His tyranny spread far over the city making it hard to find any witches or warlocks willing to talk to her especially about what she wanted information on.

The girl who had spoken to her had gripped her hand with both of hers, the paleness of her skin an interesting contrast to Bonnie's, looked deep into her flat forest green eyes with startlingly grey eyes

"I'm only telling you this because I can see you're broken and if you don't find a sufficient answer you'll break everyone around you," She had said, "But this will eat you inside out. It's wrong for us as witches to tip the balance; we're its protectors. No one should have this power, especially not a broken little girl,"

Bonnie had pulled her hand out of the girl's grip as if she had been burnt, the girl looked at her and she had a feeling the girl wasn't just sprouting nonsense, that she was seeing what was to come. Somehow that did nothing to deter Bonnie, all she could think about was that Grams would fix everything.

**Beneath the sun I am rotting **

**Just like the ones that came before me **

**I cannot deny my own walk has become a crawl **

**I've never felt so **

**I've never felt so lost **

The night was darker than usual- the sky starless and the moon sinister in its fullness - when Bonnie stole back into town.

Any fear that she had contained slipped away as she stood inside the pentacle in salt that she had spelled in the middle of a field. The area had grown eerily quiet and Bonnie could almost hear her own heartbeat as she worked to light the fire in the large wrought iron basins. The Latin that she had memorized fell from her lips naturally and she winced when the wind picked up but continued her recital of the spell.

She gingerly picked up an antique hair clip that had been her Grams, a gift that she had received from an old boyfriend in her late teens. She threw it in and watched as the flames flared up to an intense heat and melted the solid silver hair clip like it was nothing. She gritted her teeth together in determination and unsheathed a jewel encrusted ceremonial dagger that was a family heirloom and sliced open the palm of her left hand and watched the blood from the wound drop into basin. Everything was still, too still for too long and them Bonnie dropped to her hands and knees, her upper torso burning and her body forcing her to retch. Her body dry heaved for a while before a dark, rich liquid spurted past her lips to stain the green grass. She blinked for a moment, not understanding what was going on.

What was this? This wasn't supposed to be part of it, she had already given of her blood willingly.

The ground shook beneath her hands and it split open and ghastly sounds that chilled her to her bones escaped. She let out a strangled cry and backed away on her haunches, away from the rapidly opening ground. She winced at the movement, it felt as if all her ribs were broken and from the hollow feeling in her stomach, something wasn't right. A skeletal hand reached up from crack and proceeded to pull itself up, tattered bits of ashen gray – brown skin clinging to dead muscles and tendons. Worn rags clung from its body and thin, lifeless curly hair clung to a semblance of a scalp.

The smell was putrid and Bonnie refrained from gagging again for the fear that blood instead of her lunch would find its way to the forefront. "Grams," Bonnie croaked and its head tilted up and sunken, brown eyes met her teary green ones.

"Grams," She cried "It's me, Bonnie," There was nothing there, no recognition for her only granddaughter only that look she had seen in Damon's eyes before he had attacked her, hunger. His was hunger for revenge but this, the look that – this- this thing gave her was pure unbidden cannibalistic hunger. Faster than she thought a skeleton figure could move, it lunged at her she threw her arms up to protect herself. It growled unnaturally as her magic sent it flying backwards.

Any hopes that she had that sense could be talked into her Grams were squashed and she trembled as her skeletal figure rose from the heap that she had sent it flying into and moved to attack once more. Bonnie rose her hand out in front of her and muttered the words that would freeze her Grams and then send her into flames. She looked away, taking solstice in the fact that her Grams – or what was left of her – wouldn't feel it.

She only looked up when her magic tugged wearily at the sleeves of her consciousness. She stood with some difficulty, her ribs hurt and her head and hand, where she had cut it, throbbed painfully. Casting her teary eyes at the charred heap on the floor she squeezed her eyes tightly together and turned her back on her selfish act that had damned her Grams – no matter how short an amount of time she was like that – to be that creature. In agony and eternal hunger.

##

**I know I could never run far enough **

**To escape your love (To escape your love) **

**So why do I keep running? **

She didn't well sleep that night or any night after for that matter. How could she?

She had went home, showered for an eternity and cried herself to sleep.

And in her dreams, it was the only place they could reach her and try to punish her. "Your magic is the only thing that's keeping you alive right now," A voice had whispered against the dark mass of her sleeping thoughts. "But it's not going to hold up much longer. It may go about letting you unrestricted access to magic but it's unnatural and self-serving and you'll just be another dead witch used to fuel its power."

She is made to recall her Gram's dead eyes and grey flesh, the unnatural shriek she made when she had lunged for Bonnie. She feels if she has been screaming for hours before she wakes up panting and sweat making the clothes stick to her small frame.

**Now the chaos is all around me **

**Show me the light at the end of the tunnel **

**I need you to save me from myself **

**Give me something I can feel!**

Bonnie pushes back her heavy comforters and makes her way over to open her window, before she moves away from it, a glimpse of black catches her eye. Perched on a tree in front of her window is a crow, so still that she would have missed it if not for the mischievous glint in its eye. She sighs and places her head into her hands.

The anger that she usually feels towards him isn't as easy to come by probably because she thinks she gets him on a certain level. He has no one and love has never been easy to come by and everything he touches goes to hell. She thinks it sounds familiar. So she sits on her window seat and stares at it, willing it to blink or move.

It doesn't.

After a while she feels ridiculous, for all she knows it could actually be an animal but then there is a gust of wind and Damon's clinging to her window, so close his finger brushes the invisible barrier stopping him from entering her home, and she can almost feel his breath on her face.

"I think this is called stalking," She quips unthinkingly. "I'm almost certain I can file a restraining order,"

His face is impassive and his methane eyes don't meet hers.

"Everyone's worried about you," She scoffs "I've been away from school for 2 weeks, if they were worried they could pop by or text," Damon shrugs unwilling to go further into the topic of how bad her friends suck.

"Where have you been?"

She mirrors his shrug "Around,"

The cold wind whips at her face but she's too numb to care. Damon finally looks at her, his curiosity peaking. She had stopped smelling like cinnamon after she came back into town; now she smelt like death. It clung to her like smoke and instead of being repulsive it draws him in and makes him notice how broken she is.

The silence stretches on and he hates it, hates that he still cannot sincerely apologize for his part in her Gram's death. Hates that she will never stop blaming him for everything, down to global warming. Hates that she cannot hold on to her anger for him and despises the fact that he has ruined another life. She would have never accepted his apology anyways because words are just that. They mean nothing in the end.

A countdown has started in her body, it hums with magic and she can tell how much time she has left. It's a ticking sound inside her head.

_ Tic _

"I'm sorry Damon," The words that leaves her mouth are startling to them both and Bonnie leans back against her window frame and does a quick introspection, she finds that she means it. "I blame you for everything and I know it's not fair…It's just easy to blame someone else than to realize that my need to be a saviour is why I keep being trampled on and why I loose everyone."

Damon eyes searches hers "Sometimes it is my fault, I'm selfish and crass and I ruin everything I touch. I ruined you."

"What are you talking about?" He hesitates for a second before he looks up at the waning crescent in the sky, it's barely able to give off light to illuminate the darkness.

"You were the first person I met in this town," He started "It was really late and you had just walked out of the library, I was drunk and asked you directions,"

"Why don't I remember?" She frowns.

"I kissed you and compelled you to forget, I didn't want anyone knowing that I was back in town yet,"

Bonnie's hand reaches up to touch her lips and Damon's eyes follows her movement. When her fingers come in contact, she feels the hollowness inside her grow and she's slightly dizzy.

"I don't want to forget," She says and it shocks her, not for the first time, at how honest she's being.

"Come in," Damon gracefully slides through her window and they stand away from each other, searching for something… Bonnie steps closer and cradles his face in her hands.

She had never really thought of Damon in a romantic sense; he was just too cocky and infuriating to be around. Now like this, both of their amours down; she could see the beauty of his brokenness especially since she was just as broken. It was like looking into a mirror.

_Tic_

She stands on her tiptoes to gently press her lips against his. A caste peck that evolves once his hands move to her waist and lifts her up so she is forced to wrap her long legs around his midsection. His tongue seeks entry to her mouth and she obliges in surprise as he lowers them unto her bed.

They kiss for a while, Damon's hands never wandering further than necessary and hers staying laced in his hair. He pulls apart, letting her breathe and he takes in the sight of her eyes half lidded and her lips swollen from all his kisses. It stirs something inside of him and he wants her even more. They lie facing each other in a comfortable silence. Damon traces slow circles on the skin of her arms, collarbones, anywhere his hands could reach and Bonnie laces the fingers of his free hand together with hers.

Eerie. She supposed. That one week she hated him and the next… she could tolerate him. He was just a place holder she supposed. Something to place into that void inside her so she won't feel so hollowed out anymore. So empty.

No one or nothing was a substitute for her Grams, the woman who raised her but she could try to fill the void she left somehow.

_Tic_

**Take all my guilt **

**Take all my pride **

**I want to know you sincerely **

**I'm on my knees **

**Take all of me **

**I want to feel you here with me **

**Feel you here with me!**


	2. The Unfaithful

**AN: Hey there. I'm extremely frustrated with SWTWC and this is how I deal, by working on my music prompts. I didn't really like this chapter but I have to learn to get over myself and this in itself is a learning experience as an aspiring author. **

**Anywhoo I also have a Steffonie story idea (totes AU) that I'm working on and also a Batherine story idea I've been sitting on forever but I also have a Bonbekah two-shot to finish. **

**I need help please; a Beta would be nice. ^_^  
**

**Oh Reviews = Love btw**

**-Nica**

**Disclaimer thingy: I DO NOT OWN THE VAMPIRE DIARIES OR IT'S CHARACTERS. IT BELONGS TO L.J SMITH AND THE CW. **

* * *

**The Hollow**

**Part 2: The Unfaithful**

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Caroline says a bit worriedly and bites her full lip. Bonnie shrugs tracking her friend's movements in the vanity's mirror. Caroline carefully puts down the scissors down and fixes her friend with an unsure gaze.

**_Tic_**

"You'd tell me if something was wrong right? Cus' this seems like a 'not- quite - quarter - life - crisis'" Caroline is worrying her lip with a guilty expression plastered on her face, like if she has realized she has not been being the best of friends.

Bonnie wants to snap at her; to tell her something she will most likely regret later but she isn't that selfish or angry. Her anger has seemed to dissipate as soon as it comes lately.

_She can't hold on to anything. Not even her own meager existence. Classic._

She smiles at Caroline through the mirror, not quite ready to turn to look at her friend. She feels as if all the lies she's built will tumble down on top of her, stifling her. Bonnie's chest tightens and she vaguely wonders if she can drown on air.

**_Tic_**

"Of course Caro; I would tell you,"

##

**Say what you wanted to say.**

She admires the blonde bob that frames her face and smiles at Caroline who squeals and throws her arms around her friend. It actually looked really good, she had thought that the light colour would look weird against her dark skin when Caroline had suggested it but she now realized she was light skinned enough to pull it off.

Caroline snapped a picture of them and she chuckled when she saw her tweeting it with the hash tag 'blondeshavemorefun'

**Mean what you wanted to mean.****  
**I'm listening, so be real with me.****

**"I've never known you to be the one who refuses to speak. You've never held anything back from me until now,"** Bonnie's eyes flashed and she stepped back from him; their relationship may have changed from reluctant allies to friends but she hated the knowing tone to his voice. Because he didn't. He didn't _know_

_**Tic**_

"Don't Damon," Bonnie shook her head and clenched her fists before storming out of the boarding house.

**What were you thinking?**

She hasn't told anyone as yet. Even when she resents her friends she still puts their happiness first. Bonnie shakes her head and chuckles humorlessly at the thought. She's numb when Jeremy twirls her blonde hair around his finger and smiles down at her; planning their future. She could lie to herself all she wants and say she only wants her friends to be happy but it's more about her than anything else.

They'll taint it. Warp it. Elena will blame herself and make it all about her. Caroline would cry and beat herself up about it. She wants peace in her death.

Probably she'll plan her own funeral. She winces_, too soon. _

**I can see it in your eyes,**

A week ago she had finally caved and went to Dr. Fell for a checkup. Her face was professional and detached but Bonnie could see the concern.

"What happened Bonnie? Is this something –"

"Magical?" Bonnie supplies helpfully. She shrugs "I would be able to tell you if you told me what was wrong,"

**You're scared for your life.**

**And I would be too if I was you,**

Meredith frowns "Some of your organs are missing. I don't even know how you're even sitting here right now. You're... supposed to be in the morgue." She knew it was bad, from the countdown of her internal clock but not _that_ bad. She pulls away from herself and her unnecessary emotions and concentrates on being stoic.

**_Tic_**

Bonnie refrains from wincing. "Bonnie what's going on?"

She stands "It's nothing to worry about," When she moves to speak Bonnie cuts her off "It's like you said I'm supposed to be dead but I'm not. My magic is keeping me alive – and it will for the rest of my life if it has to," The lies are bitter on her tongue but she swallows and forges on.

**I would be too if I was you!**

She leaves Meredith standing there struck after she makes the older woman promise to not breathe a word about this to anyone.

"You're not a burden Bonnie, your friends should know,"

Bonnie shakes her head "I'll feel that way and I don't want to. Just let me be selfish. It's not like I'll drop down dead any time soon anyway," She jokes.

"Just please Meredith… don't say anything,"

Dr. Fell nods slowly.

**Say what you wanted to say,  
Mean what you wanted to mean**.

**_Tic_**

Bonnie's angry yet she's not. She shouldn't be surprised, she hasn't been investing much into her relationship she shouldn't fault him for seeking attention from someone else.

**_Tic_**

She's angry because he can't admit it. Admit his mistakes and be honest with her. She should probably let it go and just make him leave but he's the perfect out for all her shoved aside emotions. She's been disregarding them and ignoring how she feels in favor of some modicum of peace but she's can't take it anymore as witnessed by the flickering lights.

**I'm listening, so be real with me.  
Say what you wanted to say,  
Mean what you wanted to mean.  
I'm listening, so be real with me.**

**I'll rip every single word  
Right out of your dirty mouth.**

"Just say it Jere," She says through clenched teeth and he holds his hands up in a placating gesture which only makes her angrier.

"Bonnie I think you need to calm down. I'll leave and we can rationally talk about this later," He moves to leave but finds the front door locked.

"Bonnie, let me out,"

**I'll rip every single word  
Right out of your dirty mouth!**

**Don't test me, I'll do it.**  
**I have all of the evidence, I'll prove it.**

"Just say it Jeremy," Bonnie pleads and then she's tugging him towards her with her magic.

**Don't test me, I'll do it.  
I have all of the evidence!  
For better or for worse,  
It never meant a thing!**

Bonnie tightens her mental hold on Jeremy unnecessarily and he gasps, flailing about for air. She thinks that she's like to keep him suspended in the air until all the air leaves his lungs and his lips, that he spent hours using on various parts of her body, turned blue. She also wonders what would happen if she flooded his lungs continuously with air. Would he drown on air?

**How many days have I wasted,  
Building you up while you tear me down?  
I swear the next time you need me,  
I won't be around!**

Bonnie sees a flash of fear in his eyes and she stops, dropping him unceremoniously on the floor and shoving her hot, burning anger down. It shimmers under her skin, calling out to her to unleash it again.

**_Tic_**

She's tempted but she folds her arms in from of her chest and swallows audibly, pushing the anger until she thinks she'll choke on it then it's no longer there within her reach. She has stored it away with the rest of her hurt, fear and feelings of abandonment.

**Everything we had is gone,  
It was gone in the blink of an eye.  
Pack all your bags,  
I've never been so ready to say goodbye.**

She doesn't look at him anymore. She lets the numbness tingle over her body and she orders him to leave in a monotone voice, one she doesn't believe belongs to her in that moment.

"Leave now,"

**Love, hate, pleasure and pain.  
These are the words I could never explain,  
All I know is you made me feel every one  
And it will never happen again!**

"Bonnie," Jeremy tries again and she sighs, visibly tired of his presence. She was a hypocrite yes because she was lying to everyone as well but this was different. She honestly believed that they would be happier without wondering when their best friend is about to drop down dead.

**How am I to blame  
For all your mistakes?  
You gave up the second you looked away.**

"Leave Jeremy because every second you stand there, the more ways I can kill you runs through my head and it looks more and more appealing."

She regrets the words as soon as she says it because she knows he will quote it directly for his sister who will never let her live it down but she forges on none-the less. Consequences be damned.

**_Tic_**

"I hope you're really happy with your ghost,"

**I really hope you got what you wanted,  
Now wash your hands clean of me.  
Won't you wash your hands clean of me?**

It's been weeks since Bonnie has broken up with and threatened Jeremy. He sends her longing glances in the hallways and tries to talk to her but she snubs him.

She should probably forgive him so then she could be spared the phone calls from Elena as she tentatively tests the waters on her brother's – correction – cousin's behalf or the speeches from Caroline about how much she understood and how it hurts a lot when you're in love.

But was she? She didn't really think so. What Jeremy inspired was a great amount of _like_ but she wouldn't go as far as say she was in love with little Jeremy Gilbert.

**_Tic_**

She's not angry anymore, she hasn't been since he had stumbled out the door the other day into the rain. Just as soon as the door closed with a distinct _'click'_ her body sags and the angry that seems to have been boiling under her skin is gone, replaced by a cool feeling.

She's shivering.

**I forgive you, **  
**I just want you to leave.**  
**For better or for worse,**  
**It never meant a thing.**

**##**

He stops her by her car a few weeks later, after she had managed to convince Elena that she wasn't angry anymore, that she just had to work out some things with herself and then she'd work it out with him.

She had a flashback to _an ear pressed against hers and an alcohol bottle hanging from between her fingers. Her body was hot and she made small whining noises when she felt fingers brush her core._

She lets the images fade and musters a small strained smile for the boy and before he could finish his routine of shuffling uneasily and the guilty look playing across his features before his shoves his hands in his pocket and looks down at his feet; she says **"I forgive you,"**

"W-w...Really?" He says a bit surprised and Bonnie nods at him, turning to open her car. "Can... we try again Bonnie. I made a mistake but I love you and -" He stops when she pulls out a shopping bag and he looks confused for a second before accepting it _"She bought him something?" _He wonders before peering in and seeing some of his stuff he had left over at her house.

"Bonnie- Wha?"

She stops him **"I just want you to leave,** We're done,"

Bonnie looks down at her hand and twists the promise ring he had given her off of her finger and holds it out for him.

_**Tic**_

"Bonnie, what. I made a mistake. I love you," He looks close to tears "Don't leave me,"

"**For better or worse," **She whispers and Jeremy looks as if he's going to throw up because that's the exact same words he had said to her when her Grams had died. _He would always be there for her._

What a joke. He wasn't there when she lost her Grams a second time, he was too busy shoving his tongue down a ghost's throat. The image it conjures, surprisingly enough doesn't have an effect on her. Her whole body is humming; a tell tale sign of emotional numbness for her.

She sighs.

**"It never meant a thing...**what a shame Jeremy," Bonnie tilts her head and her short, blonde locks whip against her cheeks in the wind. She presses the ring into his palm a little harder than necessary and closes his fingers around it.

"I could have grown to love you," She doesn't gauge his response because she doesn't care. She just gets into her car and peels out of the parking lot leaving a shocked Jeremy in her wake.

**_Tic_**


	3. The Victim

**AN: Yay, third chapter which I'm not very satisfied with but I told myself to get over it and since I'm so busy for school if I don't post it now, I may never. Please review, they give me life.**

**Uhh, excuse the typos. No editing here.**

**-Nica**

* * *

**The Hollow**

**Part 3 - The Victim**

**_I think it's time_**  
**_We paid a little closer attention to all of this_**  
**_Your slight of hand is an old trick_**  
**_And I see right through your wit_**

Bonnie chuckled then burst out laughing. Full on -head thrown back, hysterical, body shaking laughter. She clutches her stomach and leans back on the nearest sturdy surface. When she sobers, she wipes tears from her eyes and fixes her green gaze on Stefan who looks uncomfortable with her outburst and he shifts from foot to foot.

"Do you even hear yourself speak Stefan?" Bonnie's stance and words are light,playful even but her eyes tell another story. They're full of quiet rage that she can't express. "Because it sounded to me as if you just whored me out to the highest bidder,"

Stefan gulps and Bonnie can tell it's an effort for him to keep his eyes on her. Her tone is slightly mocking now as she continues, her brows furrow. "But I couldn't have heard that right, right ?"

She chuckles again and then looks contemplative "Probably I should get you a pimp hat and start calling you daddy?"

"Bonnie -" Stefan's voice is pleading and it takes everything in her to not fling him clear across the room and break all 206 bones with her magic.

"Say it again," It's a dare.

"Bonnie, he was threatening to kill Elena- I knew you'd want to help her too and-"

Bonnie holds up her hand, her face pained and she looks as if she's about to throw up.

The Bonnie she was a few moments ago -angry,sarcastic &amp; biting -disappears. She's the concerned,timid girl he knows who would do anything to protect her friends and make sure they're happy. It unnerves him to an extent, that's she's able to go from 0 to 60 in a matter of seconds but he chalks it up to her still being upset over her Gram's death. Guilt settles on his shoulders and he wished he had tried to be a better friend to her.

Bonnie tucks a long strand of blonde hair behind her ear and watches him unwaveringly. "You have to promise me if anything goes wrong you'll get me out of there. I'll do anything for my friends,for Elena- my sister but I can't die yet,"

Pause "I have things to do before I go,"

Stefan frowns at her choice of words but agrees because her hard exterior is fully in place. She will not entertain his questions. This will be on her terms.

Something Stefan does or doesn't do has her snapping. A bright burst of anger that cuts through his worry for Elena and brings his self-preservation to the forefront. "**_So I'll ask you. _****_Can you keep your word?"_**

**_Or is this where we go our separate ways?  
Can you keep your word?  
Never again will I trust what you say!_**

His need to reassure her makes him panicky and he stumbles over his words, making her raise one eyebrow in an unimpressed manner and move past him in a twirl of skirts and she leaves a harshly sweet scent in her wake.

_**I never thought I could be so blind**_  
_**Oh, but now I say**_  
_**If I could go back**_  
_**Do it all again**_  
_**You know that I wouldn't sign my life away**_

"Don't be an arrogant dick wad," She says in a bored tone before she can taper her thoughts and prevent them from becoming actual words she spews carelessly. Klaus' expression is surprised but it quickly turns to a sneer and he is rushing towards her fangs bared. Stefan watches in awe as Bonnie flings Klaus into the opposite wall without moving a muscle.

_**You won't get away with this!**_  
_**You won't get away with this!**_  
_**Silent when we needed you!**_

Klaus stands slowly and Bonnie thinks he vaguely resembles a kid on Christmas except his expression is wicked and she almost shudders. "You'll be fun. I love breaking witches in,"

Bonnie's expression is puzzled but her gaze slides over to Stefan and he's looking anywhere but at her.

"What is he talking about Stefan?" She asks him just because she knows she'll make him uncomfortable. She has no time to spare sympathy for anyone.

"The deal may have ... been a long term deal," She feels it snap inside her,like a switch being flipped and she's calm, rational, still. She doesn't even breathe. When she finally does and she inhales a big gulp of air. She smooths her hands over hair and smiles a bit sadly.

"Bon?" Stefan says tentatively and Bonnie holds up a hand in an effort to squash whatever apology he could come up with. She felt stupid really, how could she trust them after everything. Stefan was just as bad as Damon no matter how much Elena tried to get her to see otherwise. "It's fine Stefan,I knew something like this was gonna happen. **_I_**_** was too blind to see that,y**__**ou were too deaf to hear me...**__**Just know if I could go back. **__**This would all be different"**_

"Bonnie's it's not like that, Ele- "

"Don't Stefan, don't say her name. Don't. Don't make me hate her. I don't want your excuses. I asked you to keep your word but instead you signed my life away,"

_**You must have mistaken me**_  
_**For someone just as fake as you  
**__**You broke every promise you made!  
**__**No, I don't expect you to know what it feels like  
**_**_I just want you to admit  
_****_That you are a thief  
_****_You're a thief!_**

**_Don't take it too hard my friend_**  
**_That I feel this way_**  
**_It's just that_**

Bonnie is reminded of Klaus' presence once again when he moved towards them and she calmly turns her head and brings him to his knees, screaming in pain before she snaps his neck with a single flick of the wrist.

"Give me your daylight ring," She holds her hand out and Stefan finally turns his eyes away from the temporarily dead hybrid to the powerful but tiny witch. He doesn't want to trust her but he hardly has a choice.

**_Your excuses mean nothing_**  
**_When nothing means more than keeping your word_**  
**_Oh please_**  
**_Like I haven't heard them before?_**  
**_I don't think you'll ever learn_**

If she wanted, she could just take it from him. He makes sure he's a good distance away from all sources of sunlight before his slips his ring off and places it in the center of her tiny palm. She closes her hand around the gaudy object and uses her next hand to hold the necklace that was around her neck. Bonnie mutters a few words in Latin before she returns his ring and takes the necklace off of her delicate neck and offers it to him too.

"These should keep you hidden from all forms of locator spells or tracking and I put a spell on this house so he," She motions to Klaus "can't leave for about 3 days give or take."

"Wha-?"

"Take Elena and run and never look back. I'm done helping you, or anyone really."

"Elena is your friend," Stefan protests, anger shining in his eyes. "I'm your friend,"

A scoff "Do yourself a favour, if you want to live to see another day don't refer to yourself as my friend because _**y**_**_ou killed the trust, al_****_l of the trust that I put in you. _****_You killed the trust a_****_nd I'll never trust you again!"_**

She leaves him standing frozen in her wake. Not for the first time today.

**_I was too blind to see that_**  
**_You where too deaf to hear me_**  
**_Just know if I could go back_**  
**_This would all be different_**


End file.
